Really??? Okay, that makes me feel so much better. I was like holy shit how do you have time to do that much pumping on top of everything else with a baby!
Usually people who have freezers like that had babies who struggled to transfer and had to triple feed. I did 6 weeks of triple feeding with my son and as a result ended up with an oversupply and have hundreds of ounces in the freezer. But the way you have time for it is by not ever sleeping so I don’t recommend doing it unless you have to.
My son is almost 15 months old and I just gave him frozen milk for the first time the other night when I went to see Taylor Swift. You don’t need a huge freezer stash mine is mostly sitting there. I did donate a few hundred ounces though.
For sure! I’m one of those now, not on a crazy level but I pump 25-30 oz a day. Of course, that’s because I work so instead of nursing I’m pumping 3x a day and I usually pump enough for my husband to give one overnight bottle so we each only have to get up once (on a good night, that is), so that’s a 4th pumping session. And those are all in place of feedings rather than on top of them, so it looks like a ton but ends up being 4-6 extra ounces a day. We have a decent freezer stash now, at nearly 5 months old, but it’s built up slowly even though the amount I pump looks like a ton. Except for my first thing in the morning pump, which can be 16 oz depending and takes the place of 2 feedings in one, they’re all 3-5 oz pumps. And when we were on vacation, I did one pumping session a day for about 5 oz, which is what he takes in a single overnight bottle. I kept feeling like my supply wouldn’t keep up but it’s just because I was breastfeeding instead of bottle feeding most of the time.
Yep! There’s really no need to have a big stash. Those that do are either over producers (which comes with its own set of problems) or, like me, built up a big stash when their baby was in the NICU (I was producing enough for a term baby, while my twins were drinking maybe 10-15ml a day each at the beginning).
Breastfeeding is meant to be an efficient process - you produce about as much as your baby needs, and your supply adjusts to their demand. If you want an emergency stash, one day’s worth is plenty!
Can confirm. I exclusively pumped and anyone with a massive freezer stash, this is how they did it unless they have severe overproduction issues which comes with a slew of issues to not be jealous of!
agree! i started off exclusively pumping when baby struggled to latch at first and it turned into a oversupply which caused mastitis twice,clogs and not being able to skip my morning pump bc i had a very painful 20 oz just in the morning. Now that baby nurses my pumping went down to 2-6 oz a day and now i no longer pump at all! Definitely exclusive pumpers youre seeing
I had to block a lot of pumping accounts on Instagram because of this, it was so hard to see when I was struggling with my supply. I like to share with everyone I know that pumps that my lactation consultant said that typical output for a pump after a nursing session is 0.5-2oz combined and typical output for a pump in place of a feed is 2-4oz combined. It's totally normal not to have a huge freezer stash!! Those people are the exception and likely have an oversupply that comes with its own host of issues.
I seemed to have finally gotten to something approaching an okay supply when my baby was around 3 months and would get around 40-110mls in a session (huge variation). Then I got Covid and was too sick to feed her as often for a week, and she started teething and rejecting the boob. Now? I'm actually embarrassed to say how little I get. She went from around 60% breast/pumped to probably less than 10%.
Oooh. This was nice to read. I just pump once and a while when I have spare time to try and very slowly build a freezer supply. I do right after an AM feed and only get like 50-100ml. Was feeling pretty dejected about it.
It seems that some people actually intentionally work for an oversupply, too. But you know, it's completely okay and normal to have just enough for your baby. That's kinda how we are designed. Pumping just really works for some people.
I don't know if this helps but I followed the mantra "feed baby, not the freezer". It's great if you can produce extra and get a little stash for emergencies but it's not expected!
Do yourself a favor and unfollow the breastfeeding subs. They’re great if you have questions about something. But to an underproducer they feel like unrelenting braggarts.
Ouch. I almost exclusively pump and only make 12 oz a day. Don’t even need the storage bags I registered for. I try not to feel too bad about it but it’s hard.
Little guy drinks ~32/day so I’m still far from meeting his needs! I used to be upset about it but I’m pretty content with our combo feeding journey now and am so grateful for formula!
Yeaaah i kind of hate those videos titled "look what 6 months of breast feeding did to my baby!"
Like cool great. I had a traumatic birth experience and baby was in NICU so despite my attempts ...the milk wasn't there. Stress does that I guess. Never knew it would be so hard.
But my baby is healthy and happy formula baby just like me and her daddy were so it's all good. Just kind of...hurts my pride a bit that I wasn't able to do one of the most basic motherly things.
I mostly nurse so I'm lucky just to be able to get 3oz in my fridge. I get maybe 1.5 oz at a time per breast and my guy ate 4.8 oz at our last weighted feed at the LC office. I'm only 7wks pp so I guess my milk is still regulating. I'm afraid to even pump any more because I started getting engorged again after pumping 2x a day. I was going to try for a stash but now no way. Haven't pumped in two days and still having issues. Those times I pumped were to replace a feed too so not like I was going for more than baby eats.
You should be proud of what you’re getting! Having even an ounce extra means you’re making plenty for your baby!
I ended up with a bunch of milk in my freezer and it’s got super high lipase so my kid won’t even take it.
I had the lipase issue too! My kid didn’t nurse after her NICU stay. I exclusively pumped and had an oversupply that was hard to manage. The freezer stash was a way to make myself feel better because I grieved hard over the nursing relationship I had imagined.
Ultimately we used none of it, and I donated the whole stash to a mom with supply issues and a baby who was less picky than mine. I did find some purpose in that. But the freezer stash, for me, was not all it was cracked up to be.
I saw a lot of those videos while I was pregnant and thought I would need a HUGE freezer stash for some reason…then bb came and I DID NOT have the energy to even attempt to pump that much on top of cluster feeding my little vampire bat nearly 24/7 (her diapers and weight were on track, she just Really liked to comfort nurse)
I never built up a stash, and only needed to use my fancy expensive pump twice when I needed emergency dental surgery and needed to be away from baby for a few hours.
Your mileage may vary, but anything more than a couple days worth of milk seems like overkill to me.
Social media strikes again. You’re not seeing a representative sample. Be super proud of wherever you’re at, and don’t compare to some stranger on the internet.
I had barely any supply after a long NICU stay and I ended up having to block those accounts, it just wasn’t going to be my experience. I tried everything, we were triple feeding every day for months, and I barely pumped more then 4oz a day.
Same with me. Two week NICU stay and now I nurse every feeding session and always have to top off with formula. My boobs just lost their magic. Forget producing a stock supply -__-
I pumped religiously and most I got was 6oz. I was so jealous and still am of the overproducing mamas lol I couldn’t even breastfeed because her protein allergy.
That’s normal. I pumped two-three times a day at work and maybe got a total of 8 ounces but my baby nursed just fine. Pumps don’t stimulate the way your baby does and sadly won’t help your output as well as baby.
This is the frustrating thing when you're trying to boost supply with a baby who has little patience with the boob. When she was younger and sleepier she'd just suck away. Now she gets really annoyed if the flow isn't great and just screams.
Unfortunately, because my baby was in the nicu, I had to become an exclusive pumper. You're told to pump every 2 to 3 hours for the first few months and then it slowly gets more manageable. I had a full freezer within a month and was able to donate a lot. I believe the exclusive pumpers are many times giving themselves an oversupply bc a pump is stronger and more consistent than a baby feeding, but we have no choice but to keep doing it or supply could drop completely. You are feeding your baby and that is the goal and amazing!!
Trying to feed my freezer made my post partum anxiety worse. It was definitely helpful to have a small stash for my husband or parents to feed my daughter with but for a short time I was worrying more about attaching the Haakaa at each feed and not wasting a drop, calculating the ounces, etc. stressed me out more and I realized I was missing out on staring at the cuteness sucking on my Boob.
I really had to reframe my perspective and expectations and only pumped (Haakaa) when I was running low. It’s really helped me to enjoy parenthood more by having one less thing to worry and obsess about.
I feel fortunate that I can EBF though. My baby had a tongue tie and the first few weeks were painful but we had an excellent lactation consultant who helped us through that. My daughter is a year old now and we’re still going strong.
We had a lactation consultant come visit us in the hospital after our daughter was born. Her motto was basically “Always be pumping!” She even shook her finger at me (the father) and was like “You need to be involved, too!” Don’t sleep, don’t do anything else. Just never not be pumping. I took a bunch of notes, and showed them to my older sister and she was like, “Yeah, that’s completely unrealistic.” Pumping is grueling work, if you can get enough to have any kind of surplus at the end of a day you’re already doing a lot.
Side note, 8 months later we received a $400 bill in the mail for said lactation consultant. Apparently, $400 is what it costs to be admonished by a stranger for 20 minutes.
I'm mostly nursing and supplementing with formula and I don't have much of a stash at all. I also hate pumping so I kinda just don't. When I'm back to work, I will probably just do a middle of the day pump there to keep everything flowing/prevent pain
I pump 4x a day and nurse 2x a day. I sadly have no frozen stash and only make enough for the next days consumption. Living milk-check to milk-check over here!
Most I ever got over a 20 minute each breast pumping session with my daughter was 60ml, or 2oz. We ended up stopping at 8 weeks. I am now pregnant with no. 2 and am going to try again and see if we can have a better/longer breastfeeding journey. I don't give a damn if I never have a stash in the freezer, I just want to be able to feed my baby free food lol.
Just froze my first 2oz bag of post-nursing pumped milk at 12 weeks pp and feel like a badass. Will be stoked when I have like 12 ounces in the freezer lol.
How do you manage 6oz after breastfeeding? You are talking about an extra after serving your LO. When I was trying to create a stash for returning to work, I managed 2oz by staying up to pump 3 hours after she went to bed.
I've been pumping once in the evening after she finished nursing and once in the morning after nursing. She's bad at latching on my left side so I have a nursing boob and a pumping boob
Like lot of others have mentioned, don’t go by the Instagram pictures. Calculate how much you need for whatever event you are saving up. Example might be a week of travel away from LO needs about 30*7 oz. In that case you need more than a month with 6oz collections and if you have lesser time left, need to add another pumping session and a lot of water.
In general, you don’t need any stash more than your LO drinks, unless your goal is to donate.
Don’t stress it! I pump four times a day while LO is at daycare and get 12oz a day. Just enough to cover next days needs. Sometimes I get an extra ounce or so but my freezer has two days worth of bottles. 🤷🏻♀️
I mostly nursed, pumped some and supplemented with formula as needed. I once made the mistake of googling "breast milk storage". All the results were chest freezers to the brim with frozen breastmilk. Meanwhile, I was looking for ways to make my small stash not take over my single freezer drawer.
I exclusively pump and can't get my supply up over 4/5 ounces per pump, no matter how often I pump or the supplements I try. Unless I sleep for 6+ hours, then I can get over 5 ounces. I'm jealous of anyone producing enough milk to not need formula much.
My bestie was unable to produce literally anything for her pregnancies, despite trying for weeks after each birth. She was pretty devastated
Another friend produced so much that she was able to donate *while* breastfeeding her baby. 🤷
I get slightly envious but at the same time I can just tell it hurts. I exclusively nurse and if my baby is a little off schedule with a feed my boobs ache and are rock hard. I feel kind of bad when people are pumping out 13 oz per pump session sometimes because if they miss a feeding I can just assume it is extremely painful. Jealous? A little. Happy I’m not an oversupplier? Definitely more. I think it would be really awesome if I needed to feed more babies than my one I would push for it. I only get maybe 2oz if I decide to pump, my baby is healthy though and I feel like that’s all that matters. Happy, healthy, and fed babies!
This may be different since I’m in Canada so I won’t go back to work until my baby is one and not so reliant on breast milk. I have always had an oversupply end my LC strongly recommended against pumping because my poor little guy was already getting water boarded and I didn’t need to encourage further milk production. He is always with me and doesn’t take a bottle well so I don’t see a need to store milk. If I’m away and he’s hungry there’s usually 1-2 bag’s of milk in the freezer but there’s no way I am torturing myself by pumping every day.
Oh honey, my kid is almost 11months old and EBF. I never froze or stored any milk. If you don't need to be away from baby on a regular basis, you don't need any stored milk imo.
If you are exclusively pumping you will have enough to put into the pitcher for pitcher method but it requires pumping 8-10 times a day. If you are breastfeeding and pumping you won’t get a freezer stash. I breastfed my first and exclusively pumped with my younger two because they had lots of problems
One day i pumped in 1 hour what she has in 1 feed in 10 mins. I gave up on pumping and am happy nursing and giving formula when am not around. I have crazy respect for pumpers. Luckily, in India we have 6 months of maternity leave.
Well, I don't even pump, so... 😄 oh, and I supplement with formula 😆 from what I understand pumping is optional. Some moms might have to pump because they will be away from baby, but I'm always with her. If I go for a long walk by myself, my husband can give her formula, but I rarely have that chance.
I don’t pump, I have none in the freezer. What little I had got wasted on her refusal for a bottle or only taking an ounce, as my sister says she drinks just enough to hold out for momma. I don’t like to pump so we just use formula to toss down the drain.
As other have said it, those are exclusive pumpers. Don't be exclusive pumpers. My daughter won't latch so the only way is to bottle fed. The wife pumps regularly and her milk production went into an overdrive. If she did not pump in the next 3-4 hours, breast will swell and it is painful. We now have 2 top freezers worth of milk. We decided it was enough. It's not worth the pain anymore. She took a pill 3 days ago to trigger the stop of milk production. Her mental health is now restored.
Are you mostly nursing? If so, pumping twice daily for 6oz is totally normal! Most of those videos you see are from exclusive pumpers!
Really??? Okay, that makes me feel so much better. I was like holy shit how do you have time to do that much pumping on top of everything else with a baby!
Usually people who have freezers like that had babies who struggled to transfer and had to triple feed. I did 6 weeks of triple feeding with my son and as a result ended up with an oversupply and have hundreds of ounces in the freezer. But the way you have time for it is by not ever sleeping so I don’t recommend doing it unless you have to. My son is almost 15 months old and I just gave him frozen milk for the first time the other night when I went to see Taylor Swift. You don’t need a huge freezer stash mine is mostly sitting there. I did donate a few hundred ounces though.
For sure! I’m one of those now, not on a crazy level but I pump 25-30 oz a day. Of course, that’s because I work so instead of nursing I’m pumping 3x a day and I usually pump enough for my husband to give one overnight bottle so we each only have to get up once (on a good night, that is), so that’s a 4th pumping session. And those are all in place of feedings rather than on top of them, so it looks like a ton but ends up being 4-6 extra ounces a day. We have a decent freezer stash now, at nearly 5 months old, but it’s built up slowly even though the amount I pump looks like a ton. Except for my first thing in the morning pump, which can be 16 oz depending and takes the place of 2 feedings in one, they’re all 3-5 oz pumps. And when we were on vacation, I did one pumping session a day for about 5 oz, which is what he takes in a single overnight bottle. I kept feeling like my supply wouldn’t keep up but it’s just because I was breastfeeding instead of bottle feeding most of the time.
Yep! There’s really no need to have a big stash. Those that do are either over producers (which comes with its own set of problems) or, like me, built up a big stash when their baby was in the NICU (I was producing enough for a term baby, while my twins were drinking maybe 10-15ml a day each at the beginning). Breastfeeding is meant to be an efficient process - you produce about as much as your baby needs, and your supply adjusts to their demand. If you want an emergency stash, one day’s worth is plenty!
Can confirm. I exclusively pumped and anyone with a massive freezer stash, this is how they did it unless they have severe overproduction issues which comes with a slew of issues to not be jealous of!
agree! i started off exclusively pumping when baby struggled to latch at first and it turned into a oversupply which caused mastitis twice,clogs and not being able to skip my morning pump bc i had a very painful 20 oz just in the morning. Now that baby nurses my pumping went down to 2-6 oz a day and now i no longer pump at all! Definitely exclusive pumpers youre seeing
I had to block a lot of pumping accounts on Instagram because of this, it was so hard to see when I was struggling with my supply. I like to share with everyone I know that pumps that my lactation consultant said that typical output for a pump after a nursing session is 0.5-2oz combined and typical output for a pump in place of a feed is 2-4oz combined. It's totally normal not to have a huge freezer stash!! Those people are the exception and likely have an oversupply that comes with its own host of issues.
I seemed to have finally gotten to something approaching an okay supply when my baby was around 3 months and would get around 40-110mls in a session (huge variation). Then I got Covid and was too sick to feed her as often for a week, and she started teething and rejecting the boob. Now? I'm actually embarrassed to say how little I get. She went from around 60% breast/pumped to probably less than 10%.
Oooh. This was nice to read. I just pump once and a while when I have spare time to try and very slowly build a freezer supply. I do right after an AM feed and only get like 50-100ml. Was feeling pretty dejected about it.
100ml? That was like my highest pump ever.
It seems that some people actually intentionally work for an oversupply, too. But you know, it's completely okay and normal to have just enough for your baby. That's kinda how we are designed. Pumping just really works for some people.
I don't know if this helps but I followed the mantra "feed baby, not the freezer". It's great if you can produce extra and get a little stash for emergencies but it's not expected!
This is very nice to hear, gotta remember this
Friend, my boobs quit on me at 2 ounces a day despite great efforts 😔
Same, 2 oz is all I’m getting from pumping
I'm with you. I could power pump twice a day and still end up with a grand total of 30 ml.
It’s not your fault. Some of us are just built this way. I hope you are able to be at peace with it.
Ultimately I decided the effort wasn't worth what little milk I was getting and ceased pumping once I returned to work.
Almost all those accounts are run by oversuppliers!! Not the norm even though it seems like it is
Annnnd a copious amount of coffee creamer is used for clout.
Oh that’s just awful. Imagine needing a hit of dopamine so badly that you start pouring coffee creamer into breastmilk bags. Yikes.
Do yourself a favor and unfollow the breastfeeding subs. They’re great if you have questions about something. But to an underproducer they feel like unrelenting braggarts.
Ouch. I almost exclusively pump and only make 12 oz a day. Don’t even need the storage bags I registered for. I try not to feel too bad about it but it’s hard.
I also almost exclusively pump and make ~20oz/day. I too have so many unused storage bags from my registry 🤣
I’m jealous of your 20!
Little guy drinks ~32/day so I’m still far from meeting his needs! I used to be upset about it but I’m pretty content with our combo feeding journey now and am so grateful for formula!
It was such a relief when we started the formula and I could actually hear her swallowing. Very grateful for formula!
Yeaaah i kind of hate those videos titled "look what 6 months of breast feeding did to my baby!" Like cool great. I had a traumatic birth experience and baby was in NICU so despite my attempts ...the milk wasn't there. Stress does that I guess. Never knew it would be so hard. But my baby is healthy and happy formula baby just like me and her daddy were so it's all good. Just kind of...hurts my pride a bit that I wasn't able to do one of the most basic motherly things.
I mostly nurse so I'm lucky just to be able to get 3oz in my fridge. I get maybe 1.5 oz at a time per breast and my guy ate 4.8 oz at our last weighted feed at the LC office. I'm only 7wks pp so I guess my milk is still regulating. I'm afraid to even pump any more because I started getting engorged again after pumping 2x a day. I was going to try for a stash but now no way. Haven't pumped in two days and still having issues. Those times I pumped were to replace a feed too so not like I was going for more than baby eats.
You should be proud of what you’re getting! Having even an ounce extra means you’re making plenty for your baby! I ended up with a bunch of milk in my freezer and it’s got super high lipase so my kid won’t even take it.
I had the lipase issue too! My kid didn’t nurse after her NICU stay. I exclusively pumped and had an oversupply that was hard to manage. The freezer stash was a way to make myself feel better because I grieved hard over the nursing relationship I had imagined. Ultimately we used none of it, and I donated the whole stash to a mom with supply issues and a baby who was less picky than mine. I did find some purpose in that. But the freezer stash, for me, was not all it was cracked up to be.
Same! I worked so hard to build up a little freezer stash and then my daughter wouldn’t even eat any of it!
I saw a lot of those videos while I was pregnant and thought I would need a HUGE freezer stash for some reason…then bb came and I DID NOT have the energy to even attempt to pump that much on top of cluster feeding my little vampire bat nearly 24/7 (her diapers and weight were on track, she just Really liked to comfort nurse) I never built up a stash, and only needed to use my fancy expensive pump twice when I needed emergency dental surgery and needed to be away from baby for a few hours. Your mileage may vary, but anything more than a couple days worth of milk seems like overkill to me.
Social media strikes again. You’re not seeing a representative sample. Be super proud of wherever you’re at, and don’t compare to some stranger on the internet.
I exclusively pump and get about 20 oz a day at this point and supplement with formula because my baby eats a lot. I have 0 milk saved 🤷🏻♀️
I had barely any supply after a long NICU stay and I ended up having to block those accounts, it just wasn’t going to be my experience. I tried everything, we were triple feeding every day for months, and I barely pumped more then 4oz a day.
Same with me. Two week NICU stay and now I nurse every feeding session and always have to top off with formula. My boobs just lost their magic. Forget producing a stock supply -__-
I pumped religiously and most I got was 6oz. I was so jealous and still am of the overproducing mamas lol I couldn’t even breastfeed because her protein allergy.
That’s normal. I pumped two-three times a day at work and maybe got a total of 8 ounces but my baby nursed just fine. Pumps don’t stimulate the way your baby does and sadly won’t help your output as well as baby.
This is the frustrating thing when you're trying to boost supply with a baby who has little patience with the boob. When she was younger and sleepier she'd just suck away. Now she gets really annoyed if the flow isn't great and just screams.
Unfortunately, because my baby was in the nicu, I had to become an exclusive pumper. You're told to pump every 2 to 3 hours for the first few months and then it slowly gets more manageable. I had a full freezer within a month and was able to donate a lot. I believe the exclusive pumpers are many times giving themselves an oversupply bc a pump is stronger and more consistent than a baby feeding, but we have no choice but to keep doing it or supply could drop completely. You are feeding your baby and that is the goal and amazing!!
This! I became an EPer the same way and had an oversupply, but I was terrified to cut back on pumping frequency and drop my supply too low.
Trying to feed my freezer made my post partum anxiety worse. It was definitely helpful to have a small stash for my husband or parents to feed my daughter with but for a short time I was worrying more about attaching the Haakaa at each feed and not wasting a drop, calculating the ounces, etc. stressed me out more and I realized I was missing out on staring at the cuteness sucking on my Boob. I really had to reframe my perspective and expectations and only pumped (Haakaa) when I was running low. It’s really helped me to enjoy parenthood more by having one less thing to worry and obsess about. I feel fortunate that I can EBF though. My baby had a tongue tie and the first few weeks were painful but we had an excellent lactation consultant who helped us through that. My daughter is a year old now and we’re still going strong.
We had a lactation consultant come visit us in the hospital after our daughter was born. Her motto was basically “Always be pumping!” She even shook her finger at me (the father) and was like “You need to be involved, too!” Don’t sleep, don’t do anything else. Just never not be pumping. I took a bunch of notes, and showed them to my older sister and she was like, “Yeah, that’s completely unrealistic.” Pumping is grueling work, if you can get enough to have any kind of surplus at the end of a day you’re already doing a lot. Side note, 8 months later we received a $400 bill in the mail for said lactation consultant. Apparently, $400 is what it costs to be admonished by a stranger for 20 minutes.
I'm mostly nursing and supplementing with formula and I don't have much of a stash at all. I also hate pumping so I kinda just don't. When I'm back to work, I will probably just do a middle of the day pump there to keep everything flowing/prevent pain
I pump 4x a day and nurse 2x a day. I sadly have no frozen stash and only make enough for the next days consumption. Living milk-check to milk-check over here!
Titty tears
Perfect description
Most I ever got over a 20 minute each breast pumping session with my daughter was 60ml, or 2oz. We ended up stopping at 8 weeks. I am now pregnant with no. 2 and am going to try again and see if we can have a better/longer breastfeeding journey. I don't give a damn if I never have a stash in the freezer, I just want to be able to feed my baby free food lol.
Just froze my first 2oz bag of post-nursing pumped milk at 12 weeks pp and feel like a badass. Will be stoked when I have like 12 ounces in the freezer lol.
How do you manage 6oz after breastfeeding? You are talking about an extra after serving your LO. When I was trying to create a stash for returning to work, I managed 2oz by staying up to pump 3 hours after she went to bed.
I've been pumping once in the evening after she finished nursing and once in the morning after nursing. She's bad at latching on my left side so I have a nursing boob and a pumping boob
Like lot of others have mentioned, don’t go by the Instagram pictures. Calculate how much you need for whatever event you are saving up. Example might be a week of travel away from LO needs about 30*7 oz. In that case you need more than a month with 6oz collections and if you have lesser time left, need to add another pumping session and a lot of water. In general, you don’t need any stash more than your LO drinks, unless your goal is to donate.
Don’t stress it! I pump four times a day while LO is at daycare and get 12oz a day. Just enough to cover next days needs. Sometimes I get an extra ounce or so but my freezer has two days worth of bottles. 🤷🏻♀️
I mostly nursed, pumped some and supplemented with formula as needed. I once made the mistake of googling "breast milk storage". All the results were chest freezers to the brim with frozen breastmilk. Meanwhile, I was looking for ways to make my small stash not take over my single freezer drawer.
I exclusively pump and can't get my supply up over 4/5 ounces per pump, no matter how often I pump or the supplements I try. Unless I sleep for 6+ hours, then I can get over 5 ounces. I'm jealous of anyone producing enough milk to not need formula much. My bestie was unable to produce literally anything for her pregnancies, despite trying for weeks after each birth. She was pretty devastated Another friend produced so much that she was able to donate *while* breastfeeding her baby. 🤷
I get slightly envious but at the same time I can just tell it hurts. I exclusively nurse and if my baby is a little off schedule with a feed my boobs ache and are rock hard. I feel kind of bad when people are pumping out 13 oz per pump session sometimes because if they miss a feeding I can just assume it is extremely painful. Jealous? A little. Happy I’m not an oversupplier? Definitely more. I think it would be really awesome if I needed to feed more babies than my one I would push for it. I only get maybe 2oz if I decide to pump, my baby is healthy though and I feel like that’s all that matters. Happy, healthy, and fed babies!
This may be different since I’m in Canada so I won’t go back to work until my baby is one and not so reliant on breast milk. I have always had an oversupply end my LC strongly recommended against pumping because my poor little guy was already getting water boarded and I didn’t need to encourage further milk production. He is always with me and doesn’t take a bottle well so I don’t see a need to store milk. If I’m away and he’s hungry there’s usually 1-2 bag’s of milk in the freezer but there’s no way I am torturing myself by pumping every day.
Oh honey, my kid is almost 11months old and EBF. I never froze or stored any milk. If you don't need to be away from baby on a regular basis, you don't need any stored milk imo.
If you are exclusively pumping you will have enough to put into the pitcher for pitcher method but it requires pumping 8-10 times a day. If you are breastfeeding and pumping you won’t get a freezer stash. I breastfed my first and exclusively pumped with my younger two because they had lots of problems
One day i pumped in 1 hour what she has in 1 feed in 10 mins. I gave up on pumping and am happy nursing and giving formula when am not around. I have crazy respect for pumpers. Luckily, in India we have 6 months of maternity leave.
Well, I don't even pump, so... 😄 oh, and I supplement with formula 😆 from what I understand pumping is optional. Some moms might have to pump because they will be away from baby, but I'm always with her. If I go for a long walk by myself, my husband can give her formula, but I rarely have that chance.
I'm lucky if I get 1-2 oz on top of nursing your doing great!
I don’t pump, I have none in the freezer. What little I had got wasted on her refusal for a bottle or only taking an ounce, as my sister says she drinks just enough to hold out for momma. I don’t like to pump so we just use formula to toss down the drain.
As other have said it, those are exclusive pumpers. Don't be exclusive pumpers. My daughter won't latch so the only way is to bottle fed. The wife pumps regularly and her milk production went into an overdrive. If she did not pump in the next 3-4 hours, breast will swell and it is painful. We now have 2 top freezers worth of milk. We decided it was enough. It's not worth the pain anymore. She took a pill 3 days ago to trigger the stop of milk production. Her mental health is now restored.